EXECUTIVE COMMENTARY

In the darkest days after a tornado in early May damaged 30 percent of Van, Texas, (a city outside of Dallas) residents were provided some relief when the Van High School “Vandals” baseball team beat North Lamar High School to go on to the state semifinals for the first time in program history.

One of the areas I spend considerable time on is helping business owners prepare for and then complete an exit from the business they often founded and have worked in for decades. Let’s get one thing straight: It is a big deal for an entrepreneurial owner to exit his or her business. In fact, it is a very big deal. The saddest call I receive comes from a small business owner that has worked in their company for decades. It was their creation, and they have poured sweat and blood into building it to where it is today.

The most important leadership lessons come from the least likely scenarios. I’ve found this to be true throughout my career as an entrepreneur and executive, and it’s part of the reason I’ll spend a few weeks this summer driving thousands of miles across Europe in a tiny car I rescued from the scrap heap.

Email marketing campaigns can be extremely effective, and are a relatively inexpensive marketing tactic. Assuming you’ve built up your prospect database, an email marketing campaign ensures you’ll reach a large audience with your message — whether you’re sharing educational “thought leadership” content, unveiling a new product offering, or following up after an event.

WHITE PAPERS & CASE STUDIES

To remain in business as long as East Texas Copy Systems (ETCS), which was established in 1945, you have to be vigilant of industry trends and embrace change. During the 2008 recession, ETCS unquestionably demonstrated these abilities, first by recognizing that copier, printer and paper usage were on the decline. And, secondly, noting that if it wanted to remain relevant, it needed to become an expert in selling the systems and solutions that were replacing its former office staples.

Knight Office Solutions (KOS) got its start more than 25 years ago supplying and servicing HP ® printers for its customers in the San Antonio, Texas region. Established in 1989, the company saw early success as an HP reseller and service partner, later adding other copier manufacturers into the mix, and opening a second location in Austin.

Picture this: you have got enterprise content management (ECM) figured out. Your documents are stored electronically, you route them electronically and you have abandoned the world of paper. You have arrived! That is, until, BOOM, one of your electronically stored documents needs a signature.

ABOUT ENTERPRISE CONTENT MANAGEMENT

Enterprise Content Management (ECM) is the way in which companies store and organize their documents and other content. It covers the management of all forms of information within an organization, from paper to electronic documents, email, and more. It encompasses the functions of records management and document management along with document conversion processes. Other aspects of ECM include capture, scanning, digital asset management (DAM), search, web content management, and collaboration.

The purpose of ECM is to manage the full information lifecycle, from creation through archival and disposal. ECM solutions are available on-premise as an application on an organization's network, as a service (software as a service or SaaS) where data is stored in the cloud, or as a combination of the two known as a hybrid solution.

ECM aims to increase organizational efficiency and reduce costs by allowing anyone in the organization to easily manage many documents from any location. ECM can simplify the storage, retention, version control, security, and regulatory requirements and provides superior control when compared to paper records by allowing organizations to set access levels and put viewing and editing restrictions on specific documents. In addition, by digitizing documents organizations reduce the risk of them being lost, stolen, or damaged.

FEATURED PRODUCTS

TASKalfa 221
The Kyocera TASKalfa 221 B&W Multifunctional System delivers the essential functionality and performance that business workgroups require.

OCR For AnyDoc® Automated Document and Data Capture
OCR for AnyDoc® is a comprehensive software solution that automatically captures and processes data from nearly any business document. Installed at thousands of locations worldwide, OCR for AnyDoc eliminates the costs and inaccuracies of manual data entry.

Computhink ViewWise 6.2
Computhink® is committed to providing Integrated Document Management and E-mail Archival Solutions for the small to medium-sized Enterprise market. ViewWise® is designed to operate in multiple network environments, using your existing operational investment in Information Technology (IT), and yet continues to base principles of being user-friendly in the areas of installation, use, support, and maintenance.

Fujitsu fi-5900C Color Duplex High-Volume Production Scanner
The Fujitsu fi-5900C scanner offers best-of-breed technology and has been tailored specifically for high-volume applications. Convert large volumes of paperwork to electronic data in a flash with this powerful high-volume production scanner.

MULTIMEDIA

For Business Solutions magazine readers who couldn’t attend Channel Transitions West on April 29, 2014 in Santa Ana, CA, Jake West, who manages Mercury’s business development team, shares in this video what he discussed with conference attendees, including finding recurring revenue streams for your business.

For Business Solutions magazine readers who couldn’t attend Channel Transitions West on April 29, 2014 in Santa Ana, CA, Doug Hall, business development director of AIM, the Association for Automatic Identification and Mobility, shares on video what he discussed with attendees at the conference.